Piper Laurie

Standard black-comedy stuff, then, though not without promise. Clancy doesn't have a strong directorial touch, operating only a level or two above the point-and-shoot techniques of an actual sitcom -- and a little lower when it comes to the laugh-track ready entrances and exits. But he does capture the feel -- the shabby decor, the lines of cereal boxes, the personal trepidation -- of a reluctant and unkempt family gathering. The Collins family is trapped in the family home until the funeral is over, foraging for emotional connections purely out of necessity. Whether this authenticity is achieved through close observation or a low budget is not immediately apparent; regardless, Eulogy's distaff family unit is more or less convincing -- as a whole, at least.

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Based on the stage play, Children of a Lesser God is a metaphor movie about a hearing man's romance with a deaf woman. On the surface, it functions as a sympathy grabber for the hearing disabled, and a movie we can smile at because of William Hurt's gallant attempt to help deaf children speak, live normal lives, and, even, sing (albeit to cheesy songs but in one of the most fun and touching scenes captured on film). That is the skin deep surface, which would have been enough to make it a crowd pleaser and would have kept it from being torn to pieces by the critics.

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The Hustler has always stood out as not just a great movie about the con game, but as a great movie, period. Paul Newman's study of a pool hustler who goes through the highest highs and the lowest lows is so dazzling that an hour will go by before you look at the clock and realize... I'm watching a movie about pool.

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Carrie is the tale of a high school senior named Carrie White, aptly played by Sissy Spacek, who spends her days at school as the center of nearly every cruel ridicule and her hours at home with a constricting, sadistic, fanatically religious mother (Piper Laurie). Let's just say the mother is like a female version of Sergeant Hartman in Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, and Carrie is the distressed Private Pyle.

Continue reading: Carrie (1976) Review